


The Swimsuit

by xDomino009x



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Awkward Flirting, Bikinis, Canon Gay Character, Developing Relationship, Embarrassment, F/F, Fluff, Friendship, Kissing, One Shot, Rivalry, Shore Leave, Shyness, Swimming Pools, Valorie Shepard, fashion - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-04
Updated: 2018-02-04
Packaged: 2019-03-13 16:04:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13574028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xDomino009x/pseuds/xDomino009x
Summary: Liara agrees to go to a public swimming pool on the Citadel with Valorie Shepard and some of the other crew while they're on shore leave. The only issue is she's not sure what humans wear to go swimming, and finds out their tastes in swim wear differ greatly.





	The Swimsuit

**Author's Note:**

> Hey there, found this as a prompt on the Mass Effect KMeme and it was real fun, and amusing to write. so thanks to the anon who posted that!
> 
> http://masseffectkink.livejournal.com/8276.html?thread=39904084#t39904084
> 
> But anyway, hope you guys enjoy this little one shot!

Liara T’soni has never been to a public swimming pool outside of Thessia, maybe once on a different asari world, but never out of asari space. She’s been swimming since she was young, with her mother when she was able to get free or with one of her acolytes. The times she remembers best are those with Shiala, one of her mother’s favourites from her followers, who would take her to the children’s fun days when she was younger. 

But she isn't on her way to a paradise of water and sprayers and floaties this time, today she is going swimming with some of the crew from the Normandy. Shepard is leading the way, a duffel bag slung over her shoulder filled with towels and shampoos and anything else she might need to combat the chlorine-y aftermath of swimming. Ashley and Kaidan are coming along too, both of them bickering about how Kaidan had been forced to run back to the ship to bring his goggles. Liara isn't taking sides in their argument, no matter how many times Ash says “Don’t you think he’s a big baby Liara?” or Kaidan says, “I just don't like the chlorine in my eyes, you get it right Liara?”

It takes Shepard dropping back and dragging her to the front of their marching order with her for them to leave her alone. “Kaidan is a bit of a baby,” Shepard tells her as if she knows the inside scoop on whatever was going on, “But I used to wear goggles too when I was a kid.”

They make their way to the swimming baths, and the Commander pays for them all to get in on her credit chit. Liara tries to pay for herself, but she’s waved away. There’s a Spectre discount apparently, although Liara isn't sure there are enough Spectres to make it necessary for them to have their own specific discounts. The turian woman behind the counter seems in awe though as Shepard and her group walk through, staring at the first human Spectre for a long while until turning to other customers.

They reach the changing rooms, and Kaidan jokes about following them into the ladies’ until Ash practically throws him through the door of the men’s room.

“Shepard, should I be going somewhere else to change?” Liara asks quietly, kind of embarrassed that she doesn't know the right etiquette for getting changed to go for a swim.

The Commander laughs. “Don’t worry about it Liara, I think you count enough as a woman to come with us. Unless you wanna go in with the Lieutenant?” She’s teasing but it makes Liara blush all the same as she shakes her head and averts her eyes from the Commander. Once she knows where she’s going she excuses herself to go and actually buy herself a swimming suit, since she hasn't got one on the ship. Honestly she doesn't even know why the three humans have them on the ship, she’s never heard of any Alliance regulated swimming before. 

“If we’re done changing before you get back we’re gonna head to the pool,” Shepard tells her before she leaves. Liara nods and turns to go, glad she might be able to change in peace if she takes her time a little. “And Liara,” Shepard shouts after her as she’s about to round the corner into the leisure centre shopping area, “You don’t have to call me Commander or Shepard on the Normandy, please don’t call me that on shore leave.”

“Yes Comm… Yes Valorie.”

With that in mind she walks away, wondering what kind of swimming costume she should get herself. Nothing too revealing, she doesn't want to offend her new crew mates and hopefully friends the first time she goes out swimming with them. This is the first time they haven't invited her along because they feel sorry for her, although Valorie usually reaches out because she wants to get to know her. They usually and up talking a lot about their races. Liara is somewhat fascinated with the humans, it’s no secret, and especially Shepard. For scientific reasons of course.

She reaches a rack of swimming gear tailored for asari. There’s a stand beside that tailored for salarians, full bodied with a hood for their horns all built in. they look very uncomfortable and way too much like a layer of skin for Liara to feel comfortable looking at them. But she does imagine that’s similar to what Shepard and the other humans will be wearing, something similar at least. She’s watched videos Valorie has shown her of human swimmers in the oceans on Earth wearing what she’d called a wet-suit.

For herself though, she’s looking for something more in tune with asari fashion, and after browsing the racks of costumes she finds one that she likes. It’s a dark teal with a white panel down the centre, and white trim on the bottom of the shorts that should reach almost down to her knees and the sleeves that should cover at least half of her upper arms. This, surely, would be suitable to wear around human friends. 

As she’s buying it she just hopes it won't be showing off too much skin for them.

It costs more than she expects, but the cashier recognises her as one of the Spectre’s friends and gives her a small discount. It still doesn't make it much better as she blows just over three thousand credits on what she’s pretty sure isn't even a designer costume.

By the time she’s debated whether to also buy herself a swimming cap, one usually worn by maidens who’ve recently had their scalps dyed - but maybe the humans would appreciate her wearing one since they sometimes wear them to hide their hair - and decided against it because the suit was expensive enough, Shepard and Ashley have already gone through. She finds their bags hanging behind glass screened lockers, as well as a few other belongings like Valorie’s favourite watch and the necklace that Ashley likes wearing even though it breaks one of many many Alliance regulations.

She changes quickly, throwing her clothes and the towel she brought with her into a locker near theirs’, and then goes through to the pool.

She can hear splashing before she’s all the way through the shallow foot-bath she has to cross, filled with treated water to make sure her feet are at least clean before she jumps in. Sounding like it’s coming from the distance she can hear Ashley and Shepard calling to one another, challenging each other to see how many lengths each can swim before having to call it quits. The numbers they’re calling are way higher than Liara imagines she could pull off, and the asari are supposed to be very adaptable to water. They’re probably the best swimmers out of the council races, it’d be a shame to be shown up by the newcomers. But then, she’s never been the strongest swimmer she knew.

“Hey Liara!” Valorie shouts as she sees the asari walk into the room with her new swimming costume on. Liara searches her out, sees her waving, then quickly averts her eyes and tries to hide her blushing from the swimmers in the room. 

Shepard is hardly dressed at all, jumping out of the water from the slightly shallower end she’s lounging in with Ashley enough that Liara can see the entirety of her torso and the waistband of the bottom half of her costume. Except it isn't actually a costume, not like the one she’s wearing. Instead she looks like she’s just wearing a different set of underwear that’s maybe made for the water, but why would she have come out here in that instead of something like what most humans wear. 

Ashley at least is wearing something similar to her, although without the sleeves or shorts. But at least her body is actually covered. Kaidan is the worst though, he’s not wearing anything above his waist, and even then he’s only wearing a pair of baggy shorts that don't even reach his knees.

Liara is still blushing as Shepard walks over to her, entirely naked other than the bright red underwear. “What’s up?” she asks, and after watching Liara hug herself for a few seconds she makes an assumption, “You don’t need to be embarrassed about showing a little skin. You look good. It’s a really cute costume.” she patted her on the back and tugged at her arm, trying to get her to move with promises that she’d feel better when she was in the water.

Liara allows herself to be guided down to the ladder that leads into the pool. Back home the pool had been set on a gradient, where there was a ramp and the swimmers just walked in, but swimming seems to be a bigger deal back on Thessia. Swimming and Biotiball. 

Ashley and Kaidan bounce through the water to her, toes barely touching the ground.”Hey glad you made it,” Ashley tells her, while Kaidan just nods in agreement. She wants to apologise for taking her time, but she’s too busy trying not to make eye contact with any of them. Better they think she’s embarrassed because of the skin she’s showing than the skin they’re showing.

It takes a while, but eventually she grows accustomed to it. By the time they've been in the pool for half an hour she doesn't mind standing in a cluster with them as they all place their bets on who can swim  three lengths the fastest or hold their breath the longest or dive the best. By the time they’ve been in for an hour she stops flinching every time she bumps into one of the humans in their skimpy swimming costumes.

By that time though, they are also the only ones left in the pool. There had been another couple of asari before now and a salarian, and even a turian who stayed to the shallow end where he could reach the floor easily. But they’d left now, the last of the asari climbing out and scowling at the humans who had been shouting the whole time with their voices echoing around the pool room a dozen times.

“Hey, Ashley, if you want that game now's a good time to do it,” Shepard tells her as she watches the asari go through to change from her much more conservative swimming costume. Liara doesn't know what they’re talking about, but when Shepard climbs out of the pool, showing Liara for the first time just how skimpy her bikini bottom’s are  - Goddess, why is she still looking - and grabs an inflatable ball from the side of the room she understands Ashley wants to play some kind of water sport. The holographic Avina standing by the side of the pool seems to notice and suddenly two hoops materialise at either end of the pool.

The humans cheer, and even Liara cracks a smile as the teams are picked. Ashley decided, her and Kaidan against the Commander and the rookie. Liara supposed that at least she was on team with the Commander so she had the best chance she could have had.

The next half hour was filled with screams, with Liara cheating and using her biotics to throw the ball through the hoop and giving Kaidan an excuse to use his. More than once they battled it out to see who was the stronger biotic, every time Liara won. Natural ability was better than implanted technologies, and she’d had three times his lifetime to train. When it came down to a fight between Ashley and Valorie they were more evenly matched. They wrestled in the middle of the pool, splashing water everywhere and all over the other two if they were close enough, while they tried to take the slippery ball from the other.

“Time’s up!” Ashley announced as a drell walked into the room, followed by a human. The drell looked uncomfortable, coughing a little as they walked in, and went to sit in the bleachers at the side of the pool for a moment. The human shook their head, tugged at their arm and muttered something to them before dragging them out of the room again. 

“Guess time’s not up?” Ash asked, looking to the Commander.

Valorie shook her head, checking the clock on the wall, “Nope, you won fair and square Chief. Games over, time to go I guess.”

Ashley and Kaidan swim together for a high five, cheering at their victory of the Commander, and slowly make their way towards the ladder at the end of the pool. “You coming, Commander?” Both soldiers stand just in front of the ladder waiting for some kind of reply. Shepard just shrugs and tells them she wants to do a few more laps, and see what Liara is capable of while she’s not surrounded by other people. Ashley nods and gets out. Kaidan stands there for another few moments, apprehensive, then follows her.

Shepard starts to swim another length, urging Liara to do the same. She’d never swam lengths before, forget the laps Valorie had mentioned, and swimming the full thing was taxing. She refused to use her biotics to help pull her through the water, relying only on her physical strength. After a while, and with some teaching, she was learning how to go faster, how to hold her fingers tight together, how to put her face down and breathe out to the side when she came up for air. It was all things Shiala or her mother had never taught her while she was in the water playing.

Shepard stops, Liara doesn't notice and bumps right into her. She apologises quickly and starts bobbing in the water as she tries to keep herself afloat, too far in the deep end to get her toes on the bottom without her mouth disappearing beneath the water.

“Do you remember what we talked about, Liara? The other day on the Normandy I mean.”

Liara is surprised that they’re suddenly talking about this now, but she’s pleasantly surprised that Valorie seems a little awkward bringing it up. It’s nice to know it's not just her who finds this whole ordeal slightly awkward, but she nods a let’s Shepard continue.

“Well I wondered if you wanted to maybe get a drink after this? If you’re too tired though that’s fine.”

“No, I’d like that. I don’t really have much to wear though.” It’s true, she only had her lab clothes that she was wearing at the dig site and some overalls that he’s borrowing from the engineers on the Normandy with her for now.

Shepard grinned, “Well then forget the drinks, let’s go shopping. I have a Spectre discount, let’s abuse it a little.” She winked as she ducked under the water, coming back up again a second later and sweeping her hair back. She looks really good like that, and Liara makes sure to tell her so. Shepard blushes a little and her grin turns sheepish. For a second she looks like she’s about to say something else, then she stops. Then she goes for it, “Do you mind if I kiss you? Is that weird when we’re swimming?”

“No, I don't mind,” Liara replies, looking nervously away until Valorie taps a finger against her chin to make her turn back to her. She’s smiling softly, the kind of soft that Liara likes to think is only for her.

Swimming with humans, Liara confirms, is not all that bad. Especially when it’s just the two of them.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, lemme know what you think!


End file.
